April 19, 2005

With hundreds of students at the Homewood-Flossmoor high school planning to wear T-shirts that say "gay? fine by me" on a "gay awareness" day, some Christian students have decided to argue with the message with T-shirts of their own:

[T]he T-shirt campaign, which made a quiet debut last year, is meeting opposition from some of the school's Christian students. In what will amount to a schoolyard battle of messages, a couple hundred other students are expected to wear shirts citing "crimes against God," namely "discrimination against ... my 10 Commandments, my prayers, my values, my faith, my God."...

Jacques Jacobs, a youth minister at Family Harvest Church, said his church is "not fighting anybody, we are only standing up for the rights of the Christian student."...

David Thieman, a Homewood-Flossmoor school spokesman, said both contingents could wear the shirts as long as they comply with the student code of conduct, which forbids the promotion of violence or drugs.

UPDATE: And to answer my own question -- what message would Jesus wear on a T-shirt -- I'm going to go with: "Love one another." Do you have a better idea?

25 comments:

The problem is some people cherry pick the easy part of Jesus' message. The first of the two Great Commandments was Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

You know I'm not so sure it is easier to love God. Love involves giving up part of ourselves for the sake of the one we love, even our lives if necessary. Loving God, in the OT at least, was exhibited in part by following the Law. Loving God isn't about having warm feelings for the deity, it means shaping our lives so as to reflect our commitment to him... and that, in all religions, has a moral dimension which doesn't ever quite match up with what we feel like doing.

I figure Jesus would wear a "Who do you say I am?" t-shirt, or maybe "Love and Justice". I suspect he would wear a plain t-shirt. He preferred a lot more subtlety than most folks who try to speak in his name.

Course, he'd also go around campus healing folks and debating professors, which would cause more of a stir than a t-shirt.

Most people like to reduce Jesus down to a John Lennon-esque "Love One Another," which is like reducing the art of baking down to the command "Bake a cake." Yuh-huh, but what of the process?

I think Jesus might wear his tie-dyed t-shirt that says:

"If you love me, keep my commandments".

(He got it on a trip to Bethlehem).

Or he might be feeling kind of free and easy, and bust out his oversized white t-shirt that reads:

"For God so loved the world, that he have his only begotten Son, that whoseover believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Or if Jesus is feeling especially verbally and morally superior that day he might bust out his all black t-shirt with the skull on it that says:

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemnded already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil".

Wizard: if you accept the idea of Jesus in a T-shirt, boiling the message down into very few words is exactly what is called for. I understand your other objection to be that my message is too sweet or too easy (though I don't think it is at all). So here's my more demanding-sounding message: "Enter by the narrow gate."

After speaking with JC (you would not believe the guys at the door not letting me in, even after I told them I was on the guest list - something about not knowing the names of all the guys in the sunshine band - anyways, different story) he told me exactly what he would put on his shirt.

a lot of legalism around here, as well as symptoms of what I see as the greatest problem in the church today. If he were to wear a message-bearing shirt (I would tend to agree with paddy o about the plain shirt)...I believe it would say:

Oh no it's not. :) "If you love me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15. Hence loving your neighbor, being but one of his commands, is either a prerequisite or evidence of loving Jesus/God. Other versus suggest that as well such as some found in 1 John.

So Pope Benedict XVI calls an emergency midnight meeding of all of his cardinals. When they arrive, he says, "I have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that Jesus Christ has returned! I just finished speaking with him on the phone."

The cardinals of course are bursting with joy, but one astute cardinal says, "That is glorious news, Holy Father... so what could be the bad news?"